OTR Links 09/21/2012

“This week I want to talk about WordPress and how people sometimes misinterpret it. Some people, more that you’d imagine I’d wager, seems to think that WordPress is a company. “WordPress releases live blogging theme”, “the latest plugins from WordPress”, and similar misunderstandings show up every now and then, sometimes on big time tech sites that honestly should know better.”

“Apple has recently released iOS6. This is the latest and most recent and probably the most performing operating system out there. I personally liked its features and thought I might provide you with a little review in case you want to upgrade to it.”

“Apple’s iOS 6 introduces a feature that will benefit teachers and parents alike. Guided Access is a new accessibility function on the iPhone and iPad that lets you disable certain controls within an app and prevents kids from navigating away. When I was a special ed. teacher, I would have loved something like this.”

“What to know about an app that will increase student engagement? Nearpod…learning through interactive, multimedia presentations! Thanks to @dteahon and @phillipshuskies, I have been actively utilizing this app to actively engage students and give informal assessments throughout my lessons. Here is what occurs:”

“Locking a mobile device into a single app has been a request of parents and educators for some time. Using Guided Access to limit an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to one app can be handy when you want a child to remain on task and focused. It is also nice for youngsters who might accidentally click the Home button.”

“I have evolved as a educator since my beginnings as a teacher back in 2001. I have evolved as a leader since my beginnings as an AP six years ago. I have evolved even more since becoming a principal 4 years ago. With time, and with feedback, change should happen as long as said feedback is used. However, one must be willing to change in order for change to occur.”

“Increasingly, digital games are cropping up everywhere in education. And that’s stimulated a flurry of activity leading to the expectation that no longer are learning games only likely to come from traditional education companies, but a wide variety of sources.”

“Since the advent of e-learning and PLNs (personal learning networks), tech-savvy teachers have turned in their droves to the social networking site Twitter. But whilst the site provides a host of useful #edtech functions, from networking and making connections to sharing great new resources, some teachers are undeniably more successful at harnessing its power than others. Here are our top tips for how to be a great tweeting teacher…”

“Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is back to you with a list of some awesome inspirational posters that you as a teacher would really enjoy and hopefully hang on your classroom wall. They can also be equally inspirational for your students. I am definitely adding these posters to the section we created here under the title : “ Educational Posters for Teachers “.”

“Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle.”

“According to the infographic below, people who own e-book devices say they read more than people who don’t, at a rate of 24 books per year to 15. Education, escape, relaxation and entertainment rank as people’s main motivations to plow through books — proving that, whether electronically or via dead tree, reading remains a popular pastime.”

“Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or still have WebTV like my grandparents…) you surely have across at least a few infographics over the last couple years. While they are still popular and widely shared, many people feel that they are being over-produced and often lazily executed. That said, an infographic can still be widly successful on many levels if done right and organized strategically where the audience benefits from the information and story you are telling. From my experience in producing several widely shared infographics for MBA@UNC, here are five tips on how to create a great infographic:”

“Microsoft has moved quickly to fix an exploit that was discovered a few days ago in some versions of its Internet Explorer web browser. The hole was already being used by hackers to deliver a malware program via a Flash issue on IE7, IE8, and IE9 on Windows XP, Vista, and 7.”